Black Friday 2011

[MidwestBeast]

I used to be pretty big on black friday (in my college years) and as I get older, I find less and less reason to get involved in any of it.

That being said, I still follow the deals pretty closely and this year looks to be pretty awesome. Target, Best Buy and Wal-Mart have already had their ads released or leaked and so far, Wal-Mart and Target offer 40" 1080p TVs for $248 and $265, respectively, while Best Buy has a 42" 1080p LCD for $199. The best I've seen so far, though, may be the 46" 1080p LCD that Target is offering for $298. Either way, this year is apparently going to be the year that the big screens will truly see a ridiculous price drop.

I remember 4 years ago getting my 50" 720p plasma for just shy of $1,000 and remembering how great of a deal it was at the time. That should put things into perspective a bit.

So what are you looking for this year? Are you going to go out in the madness that is black friday? Will you be shopping for just online deals?

Do you have any ridiculous BF stories? Let's hear them.

I'm not in the market for any of the deals I've seen, yet, but there may be something to lure me out that I just don't know about.

 

[T-AD]

I went out ONCE on Black Friday. ONCE. All I did was go to Circuit City to pick up a few things. I didn't eat breakfast before I went. That was a big mistake. I almost ate the old lady in front of me. I'll never go shopping on Black Friday again.

 

[TMCCLUNG]

I went out ONCE on Black Friday. ONCE. All I did was go to Circuit City to pick up a few things. I didn't eat breakfast before I went. That was a big mistake. I almost ate the old lady in front of me. I'll never go shopping on Black Friday again.

LOL Same here. Minus the eating the old lady thing. Wrecked the rest of my day.

 

[MidwestBeast]

Haha

I've only done it once, as well. I was in college (junior or senior year, I think) and my mom and I went, but we didn't go til maybe 6 AM or so. We hit the mall to pick myself up a couple of suits and I was going to go to Staples to get some CDs and DVDs that were going to be free, but the line wrapped around the entire store several times and I said to heck with that.

I don't like crowds to begin with, let alone at odd hours of the day and you get people pushing me and running into me and I turn into a rage-monster. It's not ideal.

I've found that you can find some pretty comparable deals in the weeks leading up to black friday if you keep your eyes in the right places.

 

[T-AD]

I find that the absolute BEST place to be on Black Friday is broke. No worries, and saves you a TON of time and energy!!

 

[mich29]

def going on black friday I had to book the day off for it the first of the year.

its fun to see all the people and drama and etc.

also the deals are good too.

overall its an event you have to be there and witness

 

[CopyCat]

Each year I spend weeks researching what I might want and literally stress out zoo much thanksgiving day/night that I end up saying fukc it and don't go. I simply stress out too much and can't handle it lol. I usually buy stuff on cyber Monday though. I've found that in recent years that the deals haven't been the same and the door busters have waned. Either cyber Monday or throughout the year I usually find deals that are just as good if not better and never have to leave the house for them

 

[bombers]

Too much work going to b&m. I'd rather do online deals that start around midnight.

 

[lukehayd]

I find that the absolute BEST place to be on Black Friday is broke. No worries, and saves you a TON of time and energy!!

That's everyday!! Lol!

 

[Young Gotti]

i work on black friday and it's dead at work so i usually get all my shopping done that day on-line....however i got connections at home depot so i do want to see if they have space heaters on the cheap....space heaters are cheap to begin with like $40 but if i could get one for myself for like $20 and save some money on heating my apartment in the winter, i'm all for it....besides that i'm basically done shopping for christmas already

i like to get everyone done, if i come across something else at that point and have extra cash then i buy it but it saves me trips to the local malls and destroying little goth kids

 

[Bolanrox]

having worked it too many times. there is no way i am going out on Black Friday to shop. maybe hit some e-sales if there are any, but probably not even that..

 

[MidwestBeast]

I love that the e-sales and the in-store sales that happen all November leading up to black friday are getting better and better, each year. I won't be out in any of the nonsense, but I'll keep my eyes peeled. I have very few people to shop for, too.

 

[Tomahawk88]

A new TV sounds nice haha.

 

[MidwestBeast]

A new TV sounds nice haha.

Some of the doorbusters are pretty ridiculously priced, man. If I was in college, I wouldn't mind chilling with some buddies in front of Best Buy or wherever for the evening. Get however many items you want, sell off the other doorbusters for profit that you don't want.

 

[T-AD]

Previewed the Best Buy flyer myself... and I'm thinkin about it!!! There's a BluRay player in there for like $40 and I might try to go up before midnight to kill people... I MEAN BUY THE BLURAY PLAYER FOR $40!!!!! Yeah...

If I do, I'll report back with carnage. Or whatever.

 

[Tomahawk88]

Previewed the Best Buy flyer myself... and I'm thinkin about it!!! There's a BluRay player in there for like $40 and I might try to go up before midnight to kill people... I MEAN BUY THE BLURAY PLAYER FOR $40!!!!! Yeah...

If I do, I'll report back with carnage. Or whatever.

Yeah I have always wondered how crazy it gets. Part of me wants to go just to find an excuse to get in a fight haha.

 

[houstontexas]

I waited in Walmart 2 BF's ago for about 8hrs from 10pm to 6am for a deal on 2 Xbox 360's and 2 Wii's. My wife got 1 each and I got 1 each. Things got pretty crazy with employees changing where the lines would be etc. Managers had no clue how to lead the place and people started getting into it. There was a guy who tried to cut in line and got into it with someone else. We were about 5th in line for the systems and everything went smooth on our end, but other people didn't have as great of an experience. It was pretty fun overall to me. I would love to get in on the Best Buy drama this year, but the sale starts at midnight which would leave me having to skip Thanksgiving dinner with the family to be in line for the deals. I could definitely snag some good stuff to get presents and make some money off the rest, but my family would be pissed lol. I'm going to order a 42" 1080p LED LG smart TV from Sam's along with their Xbox 360 bundle. Other than that I think I'm sitting this one out.

 

[trenbologna]

I waited in Walmart 2 BF's ago for about 8hrs from 10pm to 6am for a deal on 2 Xbox 360's and 2 Wii's. My wife got 1 each and I got 1 each. Things got pretty crazy with employees changing where the lines would be etc. Managers had no clue how to lead the place and people started getting into it. There was a guy who tried to cut in line and got into it with someone else. We were about 5th in line for the systems and everything went smooth on our end, but other people didn't have as great of an experience. It was pretty fun overall to me. I would love to get in on the Best Buy drama this year, but the sale starts at midnight which would leave me having to skip Thanksgiving dinner with the family to be in line for the deals. I could definitely snag some good stuff to get presents and make some money off the rest, but my family would be pissed lol. I'm going to order a 42" 1080p LED LG smart TV from Sam's along with their Xbox 360 bundle. Other than that I think I'm sitting this one out.

Why would you need two xbox 360s and two wiis?

 

[houstontexas]

Why would you need two xbox 360s and two wiis?

For turning a profit on Craigslist and/or Ebay. It's something I like to do for extra spending $ and for fun. I'm weird I know...

 

[tattoopierced1]

I was going to go out to get a flatscreen TV, but ended up finding one cheaper yesterday at BB than some of the BF sales. No waiting in line, no dealing with ignorant shoppers.. even though it was 8" smaller in screen size, it was well worth the little bit of savings I got and big savings in headache. Now if it would have been a replacement TV for my big screen, I probably would have waited, but to replace a tube tv in the bedroom it was a no brainer.

 

[CopyCat]

If you follow sites like slickdeals you can find black friday type deals or even better year round. I Check slickdeals daily.

 

[tattoopierced1]

If you follow sites like slickdeals you can find black friday type deals or even better year round. I Check slickdeals daily.

I too am a fellow slickdealer...

 

[houstontexas]

Slickdeals is awesome!! I ordered some not so great protein recently from BB.com because it was so cheap. I found out about it on SD. Anyways the real deal was when they realized that item was now discontinued and gave me 3 4lb tubs of O.N. for the $60 price tag I paid for the crap protein. What a steal!!

 

[MidwestBeast]

Previewed the Best Buy flyer myself... and I'm thinkin about it!!! There's a BluRay player in there for like $40 and I might try to go up before midnight to kill people... I MEAN BUY THE BLURAY PLAYER FOR $40!!!!! Yeah...

If I do, I'll report back with carnage. Or whatever.

lol I love it. I suggest wearing a Michael Myers or Scream mask/outfit and taking a paintball gun with you.

Selling stuff off is what I'd do, too. You get what you want/need, but also buy all the other doorbusters and sell them off. Even if it's $50 you make on it, it's still $50 under the table, tax-free.

I have a feeling next year I'm going to get in on it, again. I'm set for right now, but I may upgrade my TV next year (switch from my 50" 720p plasma to a 60+" 1080p 3D capable model), so if they have solid deals on the larger models, I'm totally down. This year it's just not worth it for me, yet.

 

[tattoopierced1]

lol I love it. I suggest wearing a Michael Myers or Scream mask/outfit and taking a paintball gun with you.

Selling stuff off is what I'd do, too. You get what you want/need, but also buy all the other doorbusters and sell them off. Even if it's $50 you make on it, it's still $50 under the table, tax-free.

I have a feeling next year I'm going to get in on it, again. I'm set for right now, but I may upgrade my TV next year (switch from my 50" 720p plasma to a 60+" 1080p 3D capable model), so if they have solid deals on the larger models, I'm totally down. This year it's just not worth it for me, yet.

I have an older rear projection HDTV that works great, but once it goes out, I'm looking at a sweet a$$ Sharp 70" I saw out at Sam's Club. 1080p and 240hz of visual goodness.... I just hope that by the time I go to get it, the price drops drastically..

 

[houstontexas]

I have a 40" 1080p Samsung in the living room right now and no tv in the bedroom. I'm planning on getting another tv this BF/Christmas season, but am having trouble making a decision between all the options. I want to stay around $600 tops for now. So do I...

a) Upgrade to a bigger 1080p tv for the LR and put the 40" in my BR
b) Get another decent 40" 1080p tv for the BR
c) Buy a 51" 720p Samsung for $500 and upgrade it next year
d) Some other option...

This is actually driving me nuts lol

 

[CopyCat]

CNET's 2011 Holiday shopping guide, reviews on TV's for those of you interested.

http://reviews.cnet.com/holiday-gift-guide/tv/?tag=epicStories